Into the Darkness
by murderdeath21
Summary: Omid and Christa are actually dead. Clementine walked alone without knowing where she was supposed to go, only to stumble into other groups. A/U story! Rated M for profanity and excessive gore. Main Character: Clem, Rick, Carl, Daryl and Kenny


**Prologue**

* * *

12 years old Clementine walked aimlessly through the farm with the meat cleaver in her hand and was distraught at the loss of Lee. It's been five days since Lee's death. She thought it was her fault because he let all down. She let everyone down, and they died because of her. She felt that she was responsible for their deaths.

Doug died, because she panicked even though Lee told her to save him so he could save Carley. She was too afraid to save him, because Walkers was right behind him. She worried that she might be eaten, so she ran away. Doug was pulled out of the pharmacy window and devoured by the walkers.

Larry died because he was too pissed off when St. John family locked them up in Meat Locker after they found out that Mark's legs were used for foods. Lee woke up and would tell him to stop. But Larry threatened Lee, because the fact that he was a convicted murder. Clementine got mad and told Larry to fuck off. That's when it made Larry so mad and he started cursing to her, then he died of heart attack. Kenny was paranoid that if he would be reanimated as Walkers, so with Lee's help, he dropped salt lick on his head.

Carley died, because Lilly was paranoid that one of them was a traitor. She believed that Ben made a deal with the bandits for food in exchange for protection, but Carley claimed that he did not and that Lilly should give Ben a break. Lilly refused to back down and also accused Carley of traitor as well. That led them into heated argument. Lilly shot Carley because Ben Paul did not admit and because she called her a crazy bitch. Carley died, because Clementine did not have courage to stop Lilly when she was about to shoot Carley.

Also, she was responsible for Katjaa's suicide due to Duck being bitten by Walkers and Duck's death of infection thanks to Walkers bitten, because at the Motor Inn, she was too busy killing walker to save herself. At that time, she forgot about others live. That's when she learned her lesson after she found out that Duck was bitten.

She was responsible for Chuck's death too. Well, she shot few Walkers until she ran out of bullets. She was surrounded by few walkers and she could not find a way to escape. Ben could save her, but he escaped out of his cowardice. Lee had to save her ass by killing few walkers, and she was almost eaten by walkers but was saved by Chuck and he told them to run, so he could distract them. Of course, Lee revealed to the groups that Chuck committed suicide in the tunnels after being surrounded by walkers.

She discovered that Ben Paul, Kenny, Christa and Omid died to find Clementine when Lee discovered that she was kidnapped by a stranger. They died because she believed in stranger that they found her parents. So she sneaked out of the mansion and left to find her parents, only to be kidnapped, and was locked in the room in The Marsh House.

She had to kill the stranger for the revenge and to protect Lee. She managed to open the door, only to see Lee and the stranger sitting on the chair, and the stranger was ranting too much to Lee. Lee eyed the meat cleaver. She killed the stranger because he kidnapped her and threatened to kill her if she doesn't cooperate with him, and because the stranger was going to kill him. She brutally butchered his face out of anger, until Lee stopped her.

She started to tear up when she remembered how Lee died.

* * *

_In the jewelry store, Clementine repeatedly smashed the security walker's head with wooden baseball bat until it opened split in half. She glared down at the corpse, as she panted heavily. "Asshole! I did it. I got him." She looked up and smiled at Lee. Then she frowned again. She realized that he was going to die soon, because of bitten earlier when he went to look for her._

_Lee chuckled weakly. "You did it great. You smashed her head pretty good, huh?"_

_She carefully stepped over the corpse, and picked up the pistol, as she turned around and kneeled in front of weakened Lee._

"_Hey." Lee smiled. He struggled to stay awake, and tried to pick up the words that he wanted to say to her. "You're strong, Clem. You…you can do anything."_

_Clementine shook her head. "But… I'm young."_

"_Doesn't mean nothing. You're going to see bad stuff, but it's okay," reassured Lee._

_Clementine looked down, as her hat shadowed her eyes, and tears started to show. She recalled that Lee told her that the groups went to look for her and died. "No… It's okay. I… It's my fault. Ben… Omid… Christa… and Kenny… and before all of them, they died because of me."_

"_No…" Lee breathed for a second. "That's not your fault, sweet pea. We… We died so you can still alive there. Please… don't make our death in vain."_

_More tears streamed down her cheeks. "And… my parents." She shook her head and sniffed. "It's so horrible."_

_Lee frowned. "I can't imagine, sweet pea."_

"_And now… you? PLEASE… please don't be one of them. Please don't become a walker," pleaded Clementine._

_Lee sighed. "There's only one thing you can do. You know that."_

_Clementine frowned. "I don't know if I can."_

"_You have to shoot me, honey," said Lee._

"_Lee, no…" She shook her head, as she clenched her hands into the pistol._

"_It's okay. It's okay. In Macon…" Lee sighed. "…the first days we met, do you remember?"_

_Clementine recalled the event of their first time meeting. She nodded. "Yeah, I do."_

"_When I went out to rescue that boy Glenn, we met a girl. She'd been bitten, too. All she wanted was to not come back as a walker."_

"_Lee…"_

"_And I remember how hard it was to do that. But I'm glad I did. You don't want to see me like one of them."_

"_Okay, Lee…" Clementine sniffed, trying so hard to hold back her tears. "I can do it. I can."_

"_Find a group… but don't be quick to trust them. Please… use your wise judgment if they're trustworthy or not."_

"_I will…" Clementine slowly nodded her head._

_Lee smiled weakly. "Good. They'll take care of you." _

_Clementine began to sob more. She could not stand to see Lee suffer like that. He was delivering a death message to her, and here he was, smiling to her. She could not understand why he would smile knowing that he was going to die in any moment._

"_And Clem…" Lee called, as Clementine continued to listen to him. "And stay away from cities."_

_Clementine nodded in agreement with him. "Definitely."_

"_They're just not worth the risk." Lee titled his head. "And also…" Suddenly, he slowly closed his eyes as his head hung down, and stopped comment._

_Clementine widened her eyes, as her fear grew more. Was he dead now? She wanted to know what she was going to say. She was so worried that he was dead already. "What, what is it?"_

_Lee forced himself to wake up and noticed that she showed concern for him. "No, don't worry. All right…" He sighed. "I'll miss you." It was his last words, as he stared deeply into Clementine's saddened eyes._

_Clementine sniffed. "Me, too." _

_She knew that he was done with dying message. She knew that he was going to die at this moment. She had to shoot him before he could turn. She stood up and pointed the pistol at him, especially his head. There's only way that he could not turn by destroying the brain. He smiled before drawing into unconscious._

_Clementine closed her eyes as she pulled the trigger to fire…_

* * *

Clementine sniffed at the flashback. She felt so horrible for Lee's death. Only if she did not sneak out on her own, he would never have died, and Kenny would have taken them in the boat without any problem.

She glared down at her own left arm. Just few minutes ago, she was bitten by dog just because she did not 'feed' the dog. _'FUCK DOG!' _She had to kill dog.

She spotted the road. She had been wandering through the forest and farm for four days since she left Savannah. Finally, there was a road in front of her. Right now, she did not know where she was. She could be in other state. Either, she was going for north or west, because east would be to the ocean.

As soon as she approached the road, she started to lose consciousness, thanks to dog bitten in her arm. She needed medical attention or infection would get worse in her arm. "Fuck!"

The upcoming car on the way got her attention. Suddenly, she heard the snarl from the behind. She turned around and cursed. "Shit!" The walker pushed her away to the ground. She immediately put her hand up as soon as the walker went on her, trying to eat her. She struggled to get out of the walker's grasp.

'_Shit!' _thought Clementine. She was going to dead! This walker was going to bite her in the neck! She was going to give up, but she recalled what Lee told her.

'_You're strong, Clem. You… you can do everything.' _Lee echoed in her thought.

She heard the car stopping on the road, and she also heard the door slammed. She was not going to let some strangers to save her life! She forced the walker to the ground, and picked up the meat cleaver.

"YOU FUCKER!" Clementine snapped. She repeatedly butchered the walker's face to pieces, just like she did to Stranger back in Savannah. She went back to her sense. She took a good notice of the corpse there. This corpse was chubby and wore suit. He probably was a lawyer or businessman.

"Hey…" the man's voice. It sounded more British voice.

Clementine quickly grabbed the pistol from the holster as she turned around and pointed it towards the British man. "Don't fucking move!" She threatened the man.

"Drop the fucking gun!" The bald man shouted, pointing the gun at Clementine. He slowly crept towards her with the gun at her. She immediately switched to Shane.

"Shane!" The British man hissed. "We don't kill the kid!"

"Rick, she has the gun!" A man called Shane said.

Rick promptly ignored him and continued to walk towards Clementine very slowly and careful. "It's okay, girl."

Clementine pointed at the gun at Rick again and narrowed her eyes at him. "Stop! I will kill you for real!" She glared at Rick and Shane. She could not trust them. Lee told her to trust no one, and she had to use judgment wisely. She did not want to make same mistake she did before. She trusted the stranger and he almost killed Lee!

Despite this, Rick still walked towards her very slowly. "Listen… We're not bad guys. We have a kid in our group. He wants a friend and you can be his friend. Come with us."

Clementine perked up at Rick's comment about having a kid with them. "A kid? How old is he?"

Rick still approached Clementine closely. "He's 12. How old are you?"

"Same. I'm 12." She was so shake. She did not even pull a trigger, and Rick was very close to her.

"Wait! She might be one of them…" Shane warned Rick.

'_One of them?' _Clementine frowned.

Rick ignored Shane again, and started reach for her gun. "Hey, it's okay. You can trust us."

It seemed like Rick was a good guy. He did not seem like most bad guys do. He was friendly enough. She was not sure about Shane. He was willing to kill a kid. She might be able to trust Rick although. She started to relax and put her gun back into her holster. She had to take a risk.

She noticed that Rick was disappointed. Of course, he was going to grab her gun, so she could not kill them. "This gun is mine!" She growled.

"Do you know how to use it, right?" asked Rick.

"Of course, dumbass!" replied Clementine quickly. She folded her arms, glaring at them. "Why would I have a gun in first place?!"

"FUCK!" Shane cursed, as he paced around back and forth, gripping his head in panic. Clementine and Rick looked at Shane in confusion. He glared at Rick as he pointed at Clementine's arm. "Look at her arm! She's fucking bitten!"

Rick looked at her arm. Shane was right. There was a blood on her sleeves. It looked like it was blood under the sleeves.

"Wait! It was dog bitten!" Clementine quickly defended herself.

Shane pointed the gun at her head. She widened her eyes in fear of being killed by some idiot who thought it was walker bitten!

"Shane, stop!" Rick stepped in front of Shane to defend her. "It might be dog bitten!"

"There's no fucking dog around here! You and I both know that it was walker bitten! We saw that! We have to kill her RIGHT NOW!" Shane shouted like a mad person would to Rick. Shane wrestled with him, trying to get past him, so he could kill Clementine out of mercy.

Rick had an enough of Shane and punched him down to the ground. He glared down at Shane. "I SAID WE DON'T FUCKING KILL THE KID! CALM THE FUCK DOWN!"

Clementine started to dizzy as her eyes already blurred, thanks to the infection in her arm. She fell to the ground and fell into the darkness. Shane cried, "OH, SHIT!" That's all she could hear before she stumbled into the unconscious.

* * *

A light reflected on her eyes, and she opened her eyes, only to find out that she was lying in the back seat car. She noticed that Rick was driving, and Shane was sitting in front passenger seat.

She sat up and looked around her. She put her hand on her head and groaned. "Ugh… What's going on?"

"Hey, kid… Are you okay?" asked a concerned Rick.

"Yeah, I'm fine," answered Clementine. She allowed her to rest her back on the seat and gave out a heavy sigh. At least Rick and Shane did not leave her out back out on the street. But still, she still did not like Shane. He threatened to kill her and then he wanted her to die because the fact that she was bitten.

"Are you telling the truth?" Rick suddenly asked.

Clementine looked puzzled. "Huh?"

"Your bitten arm… Was it a dog bitten?" asked Rick.

Clementine shot him a glare and hissed. "What do you think?"

Rick nodded three times. "That's good enough for me."

Shane scoffed, staring through the window at the farm. "If she turned and bit someone, that's on you, Rick."

"There's only way to find out…" Rick shrugged, as he stopped the car in front of the farm.

Clementine widened her eyes in shock. She recognized this place! It was Greene Family Farm. She remembered when Hershel welcomed their stay for one night at the beginning of the apocalypse.

She remembered when Chet gave Lee, Clementine, and Shawn Greene a ride to Hershel's farm. Hershel allowed Clementine and Lee to stay for one night. When they woke up, they also met Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck. That day when Walkers ate Shawn, and Hershel told them to get out immediately, because Kenny did not help Lee to save Shawn. Kenny only worried about Duck's safety. That was three months ago since the outbreak.

Rick and Shane got off the car, as Shane went around behind the car to open the trunks. Rick then told her to get off the car, so she did.

She glanced behind him, wondering what Shane did, and it shocked her. Shane got a teenager boy out of trunks and demanded him to wait. Rick told the man with the crossbow to interrogate a teenager boy in the barn. The man with the crossbow complied with his order and led the teenager boy to the barn. Then Shane went to RV not too far from barn, saying that she needed to talk to someone. She started to get nervous. _'Shit! Are they going to kill us?' _

"Clementine?" A familiar voice greeted.

Clementine looked around, only to see a familiar old man in front of him. She cried happily, "Hershel!" She ran to hug him. Hershel also returned a hug. They embraced each other for a while.

"You know each other?" asked Rick, confused.

Clementine pulled away from embrace and nodded at Rick with smile. "Yeah. Back at the beginning of the apocalypse, he let us to sleep for one night."

Hershel chuckled.

"Hey, Rick." Another new voice approached them. Clementine froze. That voice was vaguely familiar. She turned around, just to make sure. She knew it! That man was approaching them. "I need—" He froze, staring at her. "Oh, shit! Is that you, Clementine?!"

That was great! Now she had two people that she knew from the beginning. Hershel and Glenn. She widened her smile more. "Glenn!"

Of course, Clementine hugged him. At least she was not alone anymore. Now she could trust her new group, and she no longer cared who that teenager man was. IF that teenager man was captured, then he was bad. He knew that Glenn and Hershel were good people, so he could trust her new group. It seemed that Rick was the leader of the group, and Shane was probably his right-hand man.

Glenn pulled away from her and smiled. "It's been a while since Macon, huh?" He looked around. "Huh? Where's Lee?" He just noticed that she was very upset. "Don't tell me he—"

"Yeah." Clementine frowned. "I killed him."

Glenn widened his eyes in shock. "You what?!" He shocked that she would kill her only guardian. He was sure that it was for good reason.

"He was bitten. I had to…" Clementine began crying. "I had to end his life. I couldn't let him to be one of them…" She wiped off the tears. "He saved me."

Glenn felt sympathize for him. He always thought that Lee would not die. When he first met Rick, when he saved him from being trapped in the tank, he knew there were people like Lee. Rick and Lee both were willing to help people and knew how to survive.

He altered his eyes down, only to see that Clementine's left sleeve was covered in blood. "Oh, shit! You're bitten!" He immediately backed away from her, worried that she was actually bitten.

"No! It was dog bitten!" Clementine sighed in annoyance. How many did he have to tell them that it was a dog bitten? She stared hard at Hershel, hoping that he would be able to tell the difference between dog bitten and walker bitten.

"Let me check," said Hershel. He kneeled and grabbed her arm to move her sleeves up. It was gash in her arm. It was still bleeding. He analyzed her arm for a while. "It's definitely dog bitten. It doesn't look like walker bitten at all."

Clementine smiled with a relief. She was glad that he knew what's difference between dog bitten and walker bitten. Otherwise, they could do much worse to her. She shuddered to think that her arm could be amputated if they could not tell the difference between them. Or maybe she could be locked in barn with stranger. If they could not tell the difference between them, she would prefer the latter.

"Are you sure?" asked Rick. He looked concern. "She's telling the truth then?"

"Trust me. I was a veterinarian before all this." Hershel reassured. Then he looked down at Clementine. "Hey, Clem. Come in. I'm going to fix your arm up." Then he went in his house.

Glenn kneeled down, as he stared into Clementine's brown eyes and smiled. "Welcome to our group, if that's okay with Rick."

Rick smiled, "What's your name?"

"Clementine." She introduced herself.

"Rick Grimes." Rick introduced himself with smile. "Welcome, Clementine." With that, Rick walked to RV, saying that he needed to talk to Shane.

Clementine smiled. She was so happy that she found group that she could trust, since Glenn and Hershel are in. Probably not Hershel because they're staying in his farm. She could only pray that her new group won't be like her old group. She only hoped that groups would welcome her in.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, Clementine is 12, the same age as Carl right now. Hershel knew that it was dog bitten, unlike Carlos. This story starts at end of "18 Miles Out" episode, FYI. **

**This is short chapter, but it's only prologue. On Chapter 1, it will be about over 10k words to 20k words per chapter.**

**Clementine will be major focus on this story. However, she will not be 100% focus of the story. Sometimes, Clementine will be off-screen or whatever at some point. For example, I may focus on Rick or other characters that Clementine won't be in.**

**It's AU, by the way. Thank you for reading this! :D**


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